


Shelter

by ohsocyanide



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Backstory, Eventual Smut, F/M, Family Issues, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 10:30:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13211880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohsocyanide/pseuds/ohsocyanide
Summary: When Dr. Harvey Mills was invalided home from the war with no possibility of returning to active duty, he found himself accepting a position in the southernmost portion of the Ferngill Republic as physician of Valley Clinic. He didn't have a home to call his own or family to return to, so starting over in Pelican Town seemed as good a chance as any.Dr. Harvey Mills wasn't looking for a love story in Pelican Town; he was looking for a home.That's where he found Eva Owens.





	Shelter

Dr. Harvey Mills rested a cheek against the window of the rattletrap bus and closed his eyes, glasses pressing hard into the side of his face. It didn’t hurt, not exactly, but Harvey wouldn’t have complained if it had. The irritation did well in focusing him, centering him, and he needed that. He needed it today, just like he’d needed it yesterday, just like he’d needed it for the nightmare that had been the past thirty months.

 

Thirty months. Thirty long months split between two deployments at twelve months per deployment with a three-month rehabilitation period following each of those yearlong spans. Thirty months of battalion aid stations and field hospitals, praying over brothers-in-arms and applying pressure, giving stitches, picking shrapnel piece-by-piece from eyes and skin and intestines. He had provided aid in the middle of combat and far from it in a field hospital where they were supposed to be safe; he had watched some of the best men he’d ever known die. In turn, he’d seen other brothers go on, go home to their wives and their kids with their memories tucked safely in the backs of their minds. He thought of those men often, more so now than he used to simply for the fact that he was now one of them.

 

He wasn’t sure what to do with himself now that he wasn’t on active duty.

 

The issue had plagued him for long enough once his airlift had taken him from the battalion aid station to a combat support hospital, from the combat support hospital to the field hospital. He was there for nearly three weeks while skin was grafted from his buttocks and thighs to the scorched areas on his arms and legs; from there, he was flown back to a specialty rehabilitation center for army veterans in the Ferngill Republic. He worked through physical and occupational therapy; he sat through both individual and group counseling sessions. He said all the right answers, made all the right comments, yet when the time came for his release and he requested to go back out onto the field, the answer was all the same.

 

He had been invalided home with no possibility of returning to active duty as a physician.

 

Harvey hadn’t been home since premed. He didn’t even have a home, not really. Home had, at one point in time, been a flurry of foster homes. As he grew older and families grew more and more disinterested in the pimply, gangly teenager Harvey matured into, he settled into a boys’ home. He enlisted the day he turned eighteen and, eligible for an advanced standing premed track, started med school two years after graduation.

 

He didn’t have a visual or any memories of the place he was currently calling home, but it had to be better than the tents and foxholes he’d called home since enlisting.

 

He was more than ready to be there.

 

The bus banged and bounced over the potholes riddling the worn highway winding away from Plainsboro and into Pelican Town. The bus itself was old, probably older than Harvey himself. He kept his eyes firmly shut and tried to tune out the noises surrounding him. The hard shift of the transmission, the steady hum of the engine, the sound of uncomfortable bodies settling around him—it was entirely too reminiscent of all the hours he’d spent crammed in a Humvee for Harvey’s taste.

 

 Harvey shifted in his seat, spine aching from being seated for so long, and nudged an elbow into his benchmate’s ribs by accident.

 

Kent scooted closer to the edge of the seat and away from Harvey’s awkward angles. “Bad place to fall asleep, bus full of people,” he grunted.

 

Harvey opened his eyes and sat up a little straighter, vertebrae cracking as he did. Kent wasn’t wrong; the bus was full. No one else was going to Pelican Town, though. Most of these people were passing through what Kent had summarized to be a “blink and you’d miss it” kind of town. Harvey pressed his body against the metal interior of the bus and studied the landscape flying past the window. It was too dark for Harvey to see anything of note, but he looked all the same. It was better than staring at the bleak insides of a sweaty bus.

 

“I wasn’t trying to fall asleep; I was resting my eyes.”

 

Kent raised a brow, concern and disapproval mixed across the lines of his face. “S’been a long day, doc, but you can sleep when we get there. A couple minutes of shut eye isn’t worth the hassle.”

 

Harvey found himself once more agreeing with Kent. Falling asleep would mean dreaming, and dreaming meant reliving the aftermath of the war. Doing that here, where women and children would likely see the effects of the nightmare, was far from ideal. No, he needed to stay awake, he supposed.

 

A sign flew past the window; it read _Pelican Town 5 Zuzu City 205_. They were close; Harvey could manage another five miles. His gaze narrowed at Kent. “You can call me by my first name, you know.”

 

His friend grinned, icy façade melting slightly. “Oh, yeah. What was it again? Henry?”

 

A smile twitched at the corners of Harvey’s mouth; he jammed an elbow back into Kent’s side for good measure. “You can be a prick sometimes, you know that?”

 

Kent shrugged, eyes alight with mischief. “You don’t move up in rank by pussyfooting around, captain,” he quipped.

 

Harvey sniffed. “It seems there’s a good reason I served in the Medical Corps and you were in Special Forces then, huh? At least one of us needs to maintain some semblance of compassion.”

 

“I’ve got compassion,” Kent said. “Loads of it. I mean… not me personally, but my family’s got it. My wife and kids are great, man. You’ll love ‘em.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

Kent’s face lit up, hulking shoulders expanding as he used his hands to talk. “Jodi, you know, my wife, she’s been taking care of the house while I’ve been gone—she wanted to settle down and raise our sons somewhere safe, somewhere away from a military base. Sam’s a brilliant kid; he’s got this band—kid’s a whiz on the guitar. He sends me videos sometimes, and then there’s little Vince.”

 

“He just turned six,” Harvey offered. He remembered Kent’s dismay at missing his sixth birthday. They’d tricked a nice day nurse into letting Kent Facetime with Vincent from her phone just so he could tell him happy birthday to his face. He remembered all this information from previous conversations—Kent was in the same wing of the rehabilitation center as Harvey, and they’d stuck together through treatments—but Harvey didn’t mind listening.

 

Kent’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Yeah, he did. He says he wants to be a marine biologist when he grows up. I’m just…” he sighed, eyes searching. “Thankful, I guess, that he doesn’t want to be like me.”

 

“Hopefully he won’t have to be,” Harvey said.

 

Kent hardened once more. “There’ll always be wars to fight. Once Gotoro and Ferngill enter another peace treaty—which’ll take fucking years, mind you—we’ll just find someone else to take to war. By then, we’ll just be too old and decrepit to fight in it.”

 

Harvey somehow doubted that. Kent was more advanced in combat and in better physical condition than Harvey could ever hope to be. He was well into his forties and ten years Harvey’s senior; Harvey surmised that if the country would call, Kent would be on the frontlines even if he were eighty and in diapers.

 

Harvey turned back to stare out the window. The stars were thicker here than they were in Plainsboro or at base in Kahndar, cloistered and dense across the dark night sky. In treatment and on base, he’d never been afforded the opportunity to stare up at the stars. Before—and he tried hard not to think of before because it hurt like hell—he’d been in the city, and the closest he ever came to stars were the glow-in-the-dark kind you tacked onto a bedroom ceiling. The bus shot through an underpass, and the stars disappeared from view.

 

“We both made the choice to enlist, didn’t we?”

 

“It’s a choice I made,” Kent said, a note of finality in his voice, “but I don’t want it to be an option for my sons.”

 

The bus was spit out on the other end of the underpass; Harvey felt its speed start to wind down. They were coming to their stop, then. To Pelican Town.

 

Home.

 

*

 

There was, unsurprisingly, a small group of people awaiting their descent from the bus. Kent had no more than set a boot on the ground before a slender woman, red hair gray-streaked with worry, slammed her entire body into his. Kent dropped the bag at his feet and gripped her waist tight, burying his nose in her hair and closing his eyes. Harvey immediately recognized her as Jodi.

 

Harvey felt a perverted sense of voyeurism watching the reunion. It was a private moment, one not suited for a stranger as Harvey was to the family. Guiltily, he directed his gaze at anything but Jodi and Kent embracing.

 

The two boys standing back a few feet had to be his sons. Sam—the older one, Harvey remembered—was tall and blond, face all sharp angles and smiles. He had gauged ears and a scar at the corner of his left eyebrow where he’d gotten a piercing and taken it out, probably so his dad wouldn’t see it. Little Vincent stood clinging to Sam’s leg, eyes wide with fear and confusion and something not unlike melancholy. He was the spitting image of his mother—freckles and sandy red hair, small face round with childhood. He was missing both of his front teeth, and there was a Kool-Aid stain on his upper lip.

 

Jodi pulled away from Kent and the two boys stepped in. Kent gave Sam a hug, a hard slap on the back, and then he swung Vincent up into the air and propped him on his hip. Grinning, he turned and gestured to Harvey. “Jod, Sam, this is—”

 

Harvey had less than a moment’s notice before Jodi was hugging him with every ounce of strength in her body, shoulders trembling with emotion. “It’s Harvey, sweetheart, we know who it is.” Pulling back slightly to look Harvey in the face, she said, “You saved so many lives. I could just—” she smacked a kiss on his cheek and hugged Harvey again.

 

Harvey shot Kent a pleading look. “I didn’t do anything outside of the expectations of my job,” he protested weakly.

 

Kent gave Harvey a look that said _that’s bullshit and you know it_ and reached a hand out, tugging lightly at the crook of Jodi’s arm. “Give him some space to breathe, Jod. He’s been trapped on that bus with me for the past four hours.”

 

Jodi released her hold on Harvey and stepped back, side brushing Kent’s. She dabbed lightly at the moisture collecting at the corners of her eyes and gave Harvey a watered down smile. “I’m sorry. We’re happy to have you here, is all,” she murmured.

 

“I’m glad to be here.” Harvey returned the smile. They looked complete, he thought. Happy. A sense of relief bubbled up and expanded in his chest at seeing the four of them standing there as a unit. He didn’t want to picture a reunion in which Kent didn’t come home, but he knew how easily it could have happened.

 

This was what a homecoming was supposed to look like.

 

Jodi looked from Kent to Harvey and back, tears still threatening to spill over. Her hands were trembling when she clapped them together ceremoniously. “I’m sure you both must be starved, right? A four hour long bus ride with no stops and no snacks; that’s practically cruel and unusual punishment. I made your favorites, Kent—fried fish, roasted hazelnuts, and fiddlehead risotto; it’s on the warming plate at home.” She shot Harvey a hopeful look. “Surely you’ll be joining us for supper, doctor?”

 

Harvey opened his mouth to decline, excuses sitting primed and ready at the tip of his tongue—the exhausting bus ride, and they looked so _happy_ that the prospect of imposing on their first night together as a family made Harvey’s stomach clench—but the look Kent gave him instantly quieted him. “If you’re sure I wouldn’t be imposing,” he offered instead.

 

Jodi’s face lit up. “We would love for you to join us,” she beamed as she began to lead them away from the bus stop. “And anyways—Sam, sweetheart, would you care to help your dad and the doctor with their bags?—I made plenty hoping you’d eat with us. It’d be an honor to entertain your first meal in the valley.”

 

Sam slung Harvey’s and Kent’s bags over his shoulder, waving away Harvey’s offer to help. He gave Harvey an unabashed smile. “The mayor is out of town for a government meeting, anyways. He was supposed to be here to help you settle into the apartment above the clinic, but he couldn’t miss this meeting. You’ll be locked out of your new place until Eva comes around.”

 

Harvey lifted his face to the sky and studied the stars as they walked, unconcerned with tripping and falling. He could spot Ursa Major almost perfectly here; Leo Minor glittered faintly just to the south of it. He tipped his head back down, eyes glancing over the different flora sprouting in random clusters alongside the path. He identified _Taraxacum_ and _Narcissus_ , _Ardisia crenata_ and _Allium tricoccum_. Distractedly, he asked, “Eva? Is she the mayor’s wife?”

 

Jodi spluttered. “Oh, Yoba, no! She’s entirely too young for him. She’s the local farmer in town,” she explained. “Moved here just a little over a year ago in the dead of winter, poor thing. She couldn’t even build a fire at first; if it hadn’t been for the town carpenter, she would’ve frozen to death in that first winter. She’s sort of… Sam, how would you explain her?”

 

Vincent chirped up from his place on Kent’s hip. “She fixed the art room for us!”

 

Sam shrugged as if that explained it all. “Eva takes care of the apple orchard just to the west of the bus stop. She fixed the community center here in town for the kids, and if it weren’t for her, the clinic wouldn’t have been built.”

 

Jodi’s expression saddened. “After Mr. Mullner passed away, she really pushed to get a doctor in town. The closest clinic is well over an hour away; that leaves us and all of the surrounding towns with no way of receiving medical treatment unless we travel by bus to Perry Point.”

 

Kent grinned. His boots scuffed against the cobblestone path as it transitioned from dirt to rock; they entered what looked like the town square. “Basically, you’re going to be really busy, doc.”

 

Harvey stuffed his hands in his pockets and tried to take his surroundings in as quickly as he could. “Busy isn’t bad,” he said. He nodded toward what looked to be the newest building in the square. It was of simple construction, two stories and white with navy trim. The sign above the door read _Valley Clinic_ ; he could barely make out the sign by the door that stated proudly _Dr. Harvey Mills, MD_. There were different fliers tacked to the door, but his vision wasn’t strong enough to read them from where they were. “That’s it?”

 

Jodi glanced back at the building as she led them away from its direction and toward a row of houses. “That’s it! It looks great, doesn’t it?”

 

"It does," he murmured in agreement. Harvey followed the four of them but kept his head craned back, eyes glued to the building. He was fascinated with it, ready to open the door and see what was hidden inside. He wanted to see where he would be practicing, what sort of tools were at his disposal; he felt, for lack of a better phrase, very much like a child waking up on Wintersday. A single word blinked in his mind as he stared at the clinic, feet stumbling clumsily over the cobblestone path: _home_.

 

 _Not yet_ , Harvey told himself, swinging back around to pay attention to where Jodi and Kent were leading him, _but it will be_.

 

*

 

The woman they referred to as Eva didn’t come knocking on the door until the dishes from supper had been cleared away and Jodi, Kent, and Harvey were working their way through a pot of coffee. Harvey, facing the back door, saw her first. She juggled something in her hand, knocked once, and opened the door without waiting for a response. She pushed through the back door and nudged it closed with her shoe, smiling at the five faces peering up at her from the table.

 

She was—Harvey hated to say it, hated that he even _noticed_ —lovely. He hadn’t been with a woman, much less taken a proper _look_ at one since before has last deployment; how could he not? He was ashamed of himself all the same, looking at her as if she were a piece of art on display for his viewing pleasure. She was all dark hair and wide, expressive eyes ringed by thick lashes. She was olive-skinned, button nose dusted with freckles; her mouth was full, lower lip slightly chapped from chewing on it. Probably a nervous habit, something onset by anxiety; Harvey wondered briefly if she had a history of it or if it was something she’d aged into.

 

When she looked at Harvey, he dropped his gaze back to the table.

 

“I’m sorry I’m so late,” she offered breathlessly. She gestured awkwardly with the pie cradled in both hands as way of explanation. “I didn’t want to show up empty-handed, and I thought everyone might be able to use a little dessert!”

 

“Apple pie!” Vincent hopped up from the table and headed for the freezer. “We need ice cream!”

 

Kent groaned and rested a hand against his stomach. He reached for the percolator on the center of the table and topped off Harvey’s coffee before refilling his own. “’Course we do, kiddo.”

 

Jodi stood and accepted the pie from her gingerly, fingers testing the pan’s temperature before fully grasping it. “You didn’t need to bring anything,” she chided. “You’ve already done plenty for all of us!”

 

The woman shrugged, embarrassed. “It was the least I could do. I had preserves ready, so it wasn’t a big deal. And I figured—” her eyes slanted to Harvey, mouth crooked up in a smile “—with a doctor in town, we could all use some extra apples in our diet, right?”

 

Harvey took a careful sip of his coffee and stood, reaching a hand out to introduce himself. He hoped his ogling hadn’t been apparent; he gave her a timid smile. “I’m not so sure the ‘an apple a day’ rule applies when they’re baked in a pie,” he teased. “Harvey Mills. You must be Eva.”

 

Her hand was soft, grip firm and steady in his. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Harvey.”

 

“Just Harvey, please,” he amended quickly. He didn’t want Captain Mills, Dr. Mills, any of that. For once in his life, he wanted to just be Harvey.

 

Eva dropped his hand and turned to shake Kent’s. He stood and pulled her into a rib-cracking hug, meaty hand smacking her back affectionately. “We’ve spoken on the phone too much for a damn handshake,” he chuckled. He pulled back and displayed her to Harvey, looking more like a proud father than anything. “It took a lot of work to get Harvey here, but we managed, didn’t we?”

 

Harvey surmised that everyone in the room knew that was the furthest thing from the truth. No one wanted to come to Pelican Town where the opportunities for professional growth were nil, save for Harvey: during group, Kent had heard Harvey’s concerns over finding somewhere to settle down and practice. By that point, the clinic had been empty and waiting for a physician to take over for a few months; with one phone call, Harvey had a home and Pelican Town had a doctor.

 

Harvey smiled awkwardly and murmured his thanks as Jodi placed a generous helping of pie in from of him. “Kent’s kept me updated with the progress on the clinic, and Jodi and Sam were telling me about all of the work you’ve done to make all of this possible. I appreciate it, honestly. I’m looking forward to becoming part of the community.”

 

Eva’s smile was bright, dark eyes glittering mischievously in the heart-shaped planes of her face. “Everyone is looking forward to meeting you. You’ll fit right in, I’m sure of it.”

 

“You’ll probably be tired of everyone fawning over you by the end of the week,” Jodi said. She returned to her place at the table and gripped her coffee mug in both hands.

 

Eva ruffled Vincent’s hair and took a seat in the empty chair next to Sam’s. “You’re going to be a bit of a celebrity around here for a while, I’d say. It’s not often we get new residents in town, so naturally everyone’s curiosity will be peaked.”

 

“Dad being back will ease some of that,” Sam offered quickly at the look on Harvey’s face. “But town’s going to start seeing a lot more traffic now that we have the only clinic for fifty miles. Maru, the nurse working with you at the clinic, told my friend Sebastian that the first month’s schedule was already completely full.”

 

Busy was good, Harvey reminded himself once more. It would keep his mind occupied. He could focus on patients, on charting, on familiarizing himself with the town in what little free time it sounded like he would have.

 

He was ready to get started.

 

*

 

Harvey and Eva took their leave when it became apparent Vincent wasn’t going to make it much longer. He kept propping his chin in his hand, eyelids drooping until they closed. Little spurts of his own snores kept waking him up; despite his obvious struggle to stay awake, it was clear his dozing would quickly transition into a much deeper sleep. Harvey knew that Kent was more than ready to be alone with his wife, too; it was suggested in the tense set of his shoulders and the way his eyes caught hers when they thought no one was looking.

 

Feeling embarrassed and very much like he’d overstayed his welcome, Harvey said his goodbyes, grabbed the bag of his belongings, and followed Eva out the door.

 

They walked in silence for a few beats before Eva glanced over at him and grinned. “They were like newlyweds, weren’t they?”

 

Harvey breathed out a sigh of relief. “You noticed it, too?”

 

Eva snorted. “Sam left because it was so apparent what was happening once they kicked us out. If you came home to your wife after almost fifteen months of being gone, you’d have one thing on your mind too, wouldn’t you?”

 

“I guess so.” Harvey worked his jaw and stared ahead, cheeks burning slightly. There had been a girl once, someone he met before he was deployed for the first time. It didn’t last long—he received a letter from her just after his first week of deployment—so coming home and finding a lover had been easy enough. There’d been girls before, during, and after his first deployment, few hanging around longer than a few weeks or months. All the girls loved a soldier, they said, but not many loved one with every intention of going back to war the first chance he got.

 

“It would be difficult,” Eva said, gaze caught on the twinkling lights of an establishment called the Stardrop Saloon. Music poured from the propped-open door and tinkled from the open windows. Harvey heard laughter and glasses clinking,  happiness filtering from the establishment and into the young spring air. She shook her head a little and kept walking.

 

“Jodi mentioned you came in winter, but... when did you move here, exactly?” Harvey asked.

 

Eva looked surprised by the question. She hummed in thought for a moment, eyes searching. “Just after Kent’s deployment, so barely over a year ago?”

 

“What brought you here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

 

Her face shuttered closed. “I wouldn’t want to bore you with the details,” she said automatically. “It’s really—it’s nothing,” she said. “Just a whim.”

 

“Well,” he responded, “it seems as though you’ve integrated seamlessly into the community, wouldn’t it? Jodi and Sam seemed to love you.”

 

Harvey couldn’t think of a single person who would pick up an entire life and move to a farm on a whim, but he didn’t press. There was more to the story than what she allowed, but he was in no position to request the information of her. He didn’t know Eva from Adam; she owed him nothing in the way of explanation.

 

As they drew close to the clinic, Harvey slowed his walk slightly and studied Eva’s profile in the yellowed light provided by the streetlamps. She looked tired, worn thin—still pretty, dainty, but the smears of exhaustion were clear across her face.

 

When they came to a stop in front of the clinic, Eva fished the key from her pocket and held it in her palm. The key glinted in the outside light; Harvey reached out and accepted it from her. “The layout of the place is pretty self-explanatory,” she offered. “The main floor is the clinic. A set of stairs at the back leads up to your apartment; you should have everything you need in there. If you don’t, you’re right beside the general store, and you’ll find people around her are happy to help however they can. If you have any questions, you know where Kent and Jodi live, and there’s a list of phone numbers on your fridge. You can call me if you need to.

 

“Maru, the clinic’s nurse, will probably come by tomorrow afternoon to finish up prepping things for your first day on Monday. Don’t be surprised if people pop in and out tomorrow, though. Someone new coming to town is a big deal, and small towns like this tend to be nosy.”

 

“So they flocked to your farm when you moved here, too?”

 

Eva grinned. “Oh, yeah. Good first impressions and all, you know? They fed me so much that first winter, I gained nearly fifteen pounds. I don’t think they wanted me to be able to run away. Not that I would,” she added quickly. “I love it here.”

 

Harvey nodded. “That’s… oddly relieving, I think.” He shuffled a toe against the doormat, feeling awkward and out of place.

 

He was on the cusp of asking Eva to come in when she sucked in a breath and said, “Well, I should let you get inside and try to get settled as best you can. I’m sure you’ve had a long day, and the next few weeks are going to be exhausting. You should rest while you can,” she advised.

 

“Of course. I’ll—see you, then? Are you on the schedule for this week?”

 

Eva gave him another crooked smile. “Absolutely not. An apple a day, remember?”

 

Harvey laughed. “Right, I forgot. What sort of an apple farmer would you be if you couldn’t keep a doctor away?”

 

Eva took a backwards step away from the clinic, streetlamps casting a halo around her dark hair. “A pretty shitty one,” she admitted. Expression growing slightly more serious, she said, “If you need anything, call. I know what it’s like to be new in a town full of strangers.”

 

Harvey squeezed the key to the door tight in his fingers and watched as she continued to back away slowly, eyes never leaving his face. “Thank you, Eva. I appreciate it.”

 

She nodded, a quick dip of her chin, before turning away and heading for the dirt trail that presumably led to the farm. “Anytime, Harvey. Have a good night!”

 

Harvey watched her retreating figure until he could no longer make out her slender form in the darkness. Once she was out of sight, he readjusted the bag on his shoulder, shoved the key into the knob, and twisted.

 

The door swung open to reveal an empty, mostly dark waiting area. It smelled clean, like antiseptic and new paint; Harvey closed the door behind him and locked the knob. He padded slowly across the waiting area and tried the knob on the door at the back of the room. It opened easily; he pushed through and went straight for the stairs directly ahead of him. He would spend tomorrow downstairs going through everything and getting prepared for his first day of work; for now, he wanted to see what his living quarters looked like.

 

Harvey went through the apartment slowly, methodically. The apartment was well-furnished with what he assumed was a mixture of new and hand-me-down furniture; he appreciated it all the same. There were dishes and nonperishables in the cupboard; fresh milk and other necessities had been thoughtfully stocked in the refrigerator. A pie—this one a crumble-top caramel apple—sat on the counter; there was a note written in left-hand slant next to it. _Welcome to the valley, doc! Eva Owens._ A phone directory and a map had been stuck beneath a Pelican Town magnet on the refrigerator. Harvey scanned over it, reading in the names listed from Abigail Greene down to Wizard M. Rasmodius. Eva’s name was closer to the top, her phone number listed prominently next to it. There were no other Owenses listed; she was single, then, and running what he assumed was a fairly large orchard on her own. He caught Valley Clinic listed at the very bottom and felt a strange twang of pride in his chest. A phone number in the center had been highlighted and circled: _Harvey Mills_. His own phone number, the one that belonged to the apartment.

 

They had thought of everything.

 

He flicked on the lights as he made his way carefully from room to room, eyes searching the nooks and crannies for anything seemingly out of place. He didn’t pause until every light in the apartment was glowing, small electric candles in the windows included. The dark was too vast, too heavy, and he wasn’t quite ready to face that on his own.

 

Harvey’s muscles ached; his eyes were heavy-lidded. He crept into the bedroom, gaze roaming once more over the cozy space the people in town had provided for someone they didn’t even know. It felt odd—uncomfortable, even—to have someone actively thinking of him, preparing a space specifically for Harvey. The people in his past—foster parents, boys’ homes, officials on base—had expected him and prepared for his imminent arrival, but they’d never chosen him. They’d certainly never been excited for him to come save for the few times a doctor was needed. Even then, his arrival was laden with little more than relief from those around him. He was a set of hands to be used, a lanky encyclopedia of little more than medical expertise and surgical technique. He worked quietly, quickly, and efficiently, and then he slipped off to the next need.

 

He wasn’t sure about people fawning over him now, not after a lifetime of the world’s silent resignation over the space he occupied in the universe. It was unsettling to feel that people were happy and excited over his arrival. It was a novel feeling to be sure, one coupled with the shameful sense that Harvey was being ungrateful of the town’s excitement. What he wanted was to settle in and do his work in peace. He didn’t need or desire adoration or attention; he would have been happy with quietly buckling down for a lifetime’s worth of work in the small town. Friendship would be welcome, he reasoned, but he was no celebrity and he was far from being any sort of hero. He was Harvey, plain and simple, and he would be happy to live as unremarkable of a life as possible in this little town.

 

Harvey remade the queen-sized bed in the center of the bedroom to military standards, folding the corners in just so. Once he was done, he stepped back and surveyed the work he’d done. He felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of space the bed offered; he toed his boots off and clambered into the center of it, neither unmaking the bed nor climbing beneath the covers. He sat for several seconds, feeling it out.

 

Harvey had never owned a bed, and he’d never slept on more than a twin. The sheer amount of room available to him in the queen-sized bed felt extravagant. The empty spaces on either side of him felt wasteful, like he was taking up entirely too much space. He scooted to the right, closest to the doorway and the nightstand where he would put a gun if he were allowed to purchase one, and he felt a hair more comfortable.

 

Harvey drew his knees to his chest and rested his back against the solid oak of the headboard, ears pricked for any unusual noises. The sound of the ice maker crunched and rumbled from the kitchen; the heat in the apartment hummed to life. Harvey tipped his head back and closed his eyes. He wouldn’t sleep, not yet. Not when he wasn’t sure what would greet him in this new environment. He would wait, feel it out until the first dregs of sunlight crept across the carpet in the bedroom. He would sleep for a few hours at most—he could sleep in if he wanted to get really wild, since the clinic wouldn’t officially open until the day after tomorrow—and then he would wake up. Start the day, familiarize himself with the clinic and the patients on for Monday. Meet the clinic’s nurse, Maru, and get a sense for how she worked.

 

For now, he settled down into the comfort of the mattress and tried not to think too hard about Kahndar and the brothers he couldn’t save. He wondered briefly of Kent’s first night at home: how it would go, if the nightmares would keep him up, too, how Jodi would cope with it. If he would wake the children up with his screams like he was afraid of doing.

 

It was going to be a long night.

**Author's Note:**

> Harvey and Eva have been bouncing around in my head for weeks now—I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> (Shameless self promo, check out the other Stardew Valley works I've got with the lovely and talented mercymain!)
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> Literary Pursuits
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> Rule 62
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> If you like what you've read so far, mash that kudos button, drop a comment, and come hang out on tumblr!
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> uninspire-me.tumblr.com


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